Gunny Walker:How does a guy hang himself without rope and then lay his own dead body on the floor?

Now is the time to feel the grief of the loss of your comrade, comrade. It is not a time to be asking questions like these. The spring air brings with it sadness. Many people commit suicide. Do you understand me, comrade?

Eeh, subby, entire article is about a fact that he was about to return to russia, what would be the point for KGB to kill him in UK, then? He could, say accidentally fall someplace in Moscow, "old person, accidents happen". The only "friends" who could have helped him there in UK is MI6 and CIA.

You all seem to fail to see the problem.This is what happens when you outsource inhouse jobs. It ends up in the damn news. Pay your folks well and you or anyone else never hears of such things.I mean- couldnt they find a rock crushing plant at a quarry ? No steamrollers or large metal smelters available ?

Tatterdemalian:Bungles: If the Russian state wants to assassinate anti-Kremlin Russian citizens all over the world, there isn't much many people can do, apart from strongly worded diplomatic letters.

Well, in most parts of the US, the intended victims can own guns, and maybe kill some of the assassins.

/no, it doesn't always work//but raising the risk side of the risk/reward ratio works more often than crying about it

Trying to leverage this into anything whatsoever to do with the US obsession with guns is a considerable stretch. and pretty bonkers.

Elderly men with guns tend not to be much of a threat to assassins who have historically used poison, radiation, and bombs, and are nowhere near their target at the time of death. Especially when they're sponsored by a state that's possibly the world leader in assassination.

Bungles:They're realised that "suicide by plutonium in tea at a popular London sushi bar" really doesn't look much like suicide and causes massive diplomatic chaos.

They're crossing their fingers that this looks less suspicious.

/the UK is getting really sick of the continual political assassination by the Russian state in London.

Putin used signature assassinations because he wanted people to KNOW they were assassinations. That's the joke, the murders are about sending a message and intimidating opposition to the Russian Mafia-state.

Suede head:Putin can kill anyone he likes in the UK with impunity and the authorities will cover it up.

course Putin has to take one of history's iffiest gambles, that no one he's giving orders to one day goes "I've had enough of this shiat" and we end up with Vlad face down in the Volga or more probably gunned down with the police going "Ain't that the damnedest thing?".

FarkinNortherner:Suede head: The UK needs Russian gas. Putin has his hand on their jugular. Putin can kill anyone he likes in the UK with impunity and the authorities will cover it up. Money talks.

Hence the extradition request for Andrey Lugovoy?

/puzzled

Purely formal. They know it won't be granted. They left a radioactive trail a mile wide back to Moscow so it couldn't be quietly covered up. As someone else here said, the message to others was the point if that killing.

You guys are looking at this from a completely wrong direction. Berezovsky wasn't killed by the Russian government or mobsters of any flavor - he was killed by FIFA. The whole thing is because the World Cup in 2018 is going to Russia. The scandal around the selection of Qatar for 2022 is nothing compared to the dirt that Berezovsky had on FIFA's decision for 2018. Remember how Jack Warner and Mohammed bin Hammam were embarrased by Baron Triesman over the blatant bribery present in the 2022 selection? Imagine what would happen if Berezovsky went public with what he knew about Russia 2018.

Look at the facts: Berezovsky had made enemies of many people highly placed in the world of international soccer. Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea F.C., was one of his bitterest foes, dating back to Berezovksy's involvement as front man and political grease for the Sibneft Oil swindle back in the 90s. George Soros, who owns shares in Manchester United, was also an enemy - he railed against Berezovsky as a "robber capitalist" as they clashed over rebuilding Russia after communism and over business deals, including stakes in Russian media. Putin himself was quoted as saying that he would spend $10 billion on the World Cup if it came to Russia - how much do you think a few soccer stadiums actually cost?

Berezovsky obviously had the inside dope on how Russia was selected as the host for 2018. He'd previously had contacts with many people high in FIFA who were opposed to Blatter, like Issa Hayatou, who he knew from bribing in the 90s to secure Russian broadcast rights to the World Cup for his TV station. Hayatou was already going down over accepting bribes from Qatar, what did he have left to lose if he spilled the beans about Russia? Andrew Jennings, who blew the lid off the whole Qatar thing with "FIFA's Dirty Secrets" was an acquaintance of Berezovsky due to their mutual interest in the Chechen opposition and Russian mob-related activities in that part of the world. Jennings had done extensive early reporting on Dudayev and the Russian Mafia connection in Chechnya, while Berezovsky had become a confidante and political ally of Dudayev's successors, using Jennings' connections to ease a path for a gas pipeline to be built through the region, as well as more photo-friendly things like negotiating the release of hostages.

Berezovsky clearly was no saint - his lawsuit against Abramovich was clearly a desperate attempt to extort money from Abramovich to keep the World Cup selection process in the dark. Why else would he bring a case about a Russian contract formed in the 1990s in an English court in 2011? Abramovich probably would've settled, if Lord Sumption hadn't been eying that seat on the Supreme Court bench. Instead, Berezovsky was laughed out of court and forced to cough up court costs, to add insult to injury. With nothing left to lose, he was prepared to blow the lid off the Russian 2018 bid to his friend Andrew Jennings. This obviously couldn't be allowed, so there we have it. A convenient suicide.